INTRODUCTION
Looking at myself when the school year started, I was and had always been a follower. I made sure I did what my family said, and that led to the consequence of not being able to find myself. But after finding my core values during the college application process, it got me finding more of myself. I am neurodiverse, and I never have been more prouder. My ASD was overcome in the most part, through I still fight it with constant tenacity. I wanted to advocate that to others much like myself in order to inspire them overcome their conditions themselves. In addition, I had gained a new philosophy as we end the 2022 school year and prepare for 2023 and the possibility of graduation from high school and into university for a higher education. My journey as a filmmaker is about to be jump started, and in final thoughts for this introduction to my reflection of this semester, I say this excerpt from my book-in-progress, Operation Omnitopia, “…we can never be perfect, but we can be better; so let go to change and let it open our eyes to what we can improve rather than ignore it out of fear or other negative emotions, or try to overcome it to become a something we can never achieve motivated to just benefit ourselves.”
MANDALA
This Mandala Project actually is rooted from my exploration of myself during college applications. The following mandalas represent my evolution of my core values as I began to change them as I changed throughout many weeks of self discovery. The process of making the mandalas themselves was that of trial and error, as well as a fun way to learn effective ways on the Adobe Illustrator platform to quickly create mandalas in what seems like a few minutes rather than hours.
There is a reason for my design change for my mandala. My core values had changed over time, from five to ten. Some of the core values I had initially, spirituality, music, and freedom, was gone. Coloring wasn’t too difficult, I just needed to use the pen tool to create an outline then add the fill (the hands were pretty hard to color). Designing different gradience was very fun. Now for each layer’s meaning: the center represents the symbol of neurodiversity, the lightbulbs represent inspiration, the people represent community and collaboration, the paint brush represent creativity, the tree and the brain represent personal growth and knowledge, the hands represent empathy, and the hand raising people in the clouds represent leadership.
PHOTOSHIP ART
Photoshop is always full of new things I never thought possible. My experience with the following projects are my slow-growing appreciation for things I would have considered filters on Instagram. It made me felt that I can turn any ordinary, boring photo into something purely of art rather than finding some online program to filter it for me.
As I am becoming a senior, I am preparing for my inevitable graduation. This photo is myself in a tuxedo preparing for senior photos. Admittedly, I could’ve done this easily with a regular filter, but I found that making my own pastel filter is just as fun and important. Filling in the spaces were quite difficult, but I managed to get most of it covered in pastel brushing. I also learned to appreciate people hard a work making those filters, one being pastel.
I love the idea of a phoenix. A mythical bird that can rise from its own ashes in a sort of resurrection. They are quite the noble creatures. Watercolors are an interesting painting style, but they are not essay the emulate. I had to repeatedly decide what brushes I had to use, destroying my own design. Eventually, I found a suitable brush, but painting the phoenix was still not easy. Lots of different feather colors plus the body made things…complicated during the producing process. But I managed, and my firebird came to life.
The three photos I picked were inspired by the background themes of my Chrome accounts. These photoshopped water color photos are categorized in space, nature, and urban. I especially enjoyed turning these normal photographs in to pieces of art and appreciate how much technology we can use to make paintings without using real paint. Admittedly, the results are quite stunning.
I am a huge anime fan, some of my characters have been inspired by some well-known anime series such as Cowboy Bebop, Naruto, and My Hero Academia. This particular image was inspired by the character Roronoa Zoro from One Piece and my own protagonist Philip, as they are both swordsmen. Philip happens to have abilities that let him use multiple elements thanks to the power of shapeshifting and mimicking the abilities of the mythical creatures of the kingdom of Mythica. This image represents Philip unlocking his true potential as the Cryptid King, the reason he has powers in the first place I really learned how to express an ability using effects during this assignment.
A struggle I have ran into for this project was trying to figure out how to embed certain image effects onto the main photo. It took quite a bit of experimenting, but I managed to find certain overlays that fit my design perfectly. I am quite proud of the lighting, flame, and lava effects I had included on the robe, sword, and arm respectively. I really will appreciate how other artists will create similar edits with these methods and I hope to use them in future endeavors in my career such as advertisement.
PRODUCTION CLASS: Film
My teacher claims to believe colleges were a “scam,” but I think thanks to this little project from an old Chapman application requirement, I was able to make something to not only represented my belief to colleges, but helped others understand who I am as a whole. I present: Two Sides of the Same Coin.